Justin Townes Earle Quotes

My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.

My dad raised me on everything from his music to Stevie Wonder to A Tribe Called Quest. I learned the 'Midnight Marauders' album in and out.

I think every group of black guys should have at least one white guy in it.

I was raised in a mostly white neighborhood. I was this little white girl jamming out to Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Brown.

Even though Chinese society was really closed, there were two windows for me to explore the world. One was from my mother and grandmother, the unseen and invisible world. Another window was brought from my father's side, those classic and Western books.

I went to public schools, and while Gary was, like most American cities, racially segregated, it was at least socially integrated - a cross section of children from families of all walks of life.

Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.

I couldn't live without music. I experienced things through music in different countries where you cannot speak the same language, but the music and the dance relates everything.

My family is still in Los Angeles. We listened to all sorts of music: Mexican music, oldies, soul, disco and rock & roll. I was surrounded by music.

My mum would play Stevie Wonder around the house, and I remember just loving the songs and feeling so blown away by how much was going on.

I grew up around whites, I grew up around Jews, I grew up around blacks, I grew up around Hispanics. We moved a lot.

I have black friends, but I don't just hang out with black kids. I might pull up with Indian kids, white kids, black kids, whatever.

LeBron had never interacted with white people before St. Vincent.

Music, many times, around the world, serves to help us understand other people without having to talk.

I was playing surf music with my band when a girlfriend of mine who had come from Los Angeles took me to a James Brown concert. That show really changed my whole outlook and thought processes, especially about music and different cultures.

I grew up in a city called Southfield, and it's one of the most diverse cities in the country. Just from the different socio-economic statuses and racial and ethnic groups I was around, I was around all different types of music from the beginning.

Something like a 'Maheshinte Prathikaram' will work anywhere in the world because it speaks of something that is beyond language.

My parents never pushed me towards music. I feel like, growing up in a musical household and always being surrounded by it, I was always kind of a performer child. I remember my parents would have guests over, and they would bring their kids, and I would make sure that we were ready to put a show on.

My good fortune was that I was born into a home where Mum and Dad encouraged me to learn the piano.

Art connects everyone.

Music's always been a big part of my life. Because of my father, I was always surrounded by music and musicians, and in school, I was in the chorus, and I played various instruments.

Well, I was a real late-comer to listen to music, actually, because my parents - first of all, my parents weren't big music fans. They didn't listen to music. We didn't really listen to stuff in the house.

I actually heard hip-hop before I saw a movie in a movie theater. I heard hip-hop first, at the tender age of seven, so that came first. I didn't see a movie until I was eight.

Music and musical instruments were proximal to my life from very early on - I took piano lessons for a brief time, but then my dad had a guitar and when he was not playing it, I would pick it up and mess with it. He jokes that I used to complain that it hurt my fingers.

There's always some difference between your Latino and African-American communities. But we definitely have more similarities than differences.